 polycytemia vera is a specific but it's a rare disorder if the WBC which is your white blood cell count is abnormally high or low it could be liver disorders or thyroid problems and some other conditions hello everyone today we are talking about CBC complete blood count you're gonna be able to understand what is going on in your blood work you all want to know right well I'll tell you things that your doctor may not tell you I'm dr. Ahmed Ergin I'm an endocrinologist and today I'm going to explain how to read CBC complete blood count well CBC can assess your overall health and detect infections like anemia, leukemia, etc. the blood cells are created and matured in the bone marrow and they're released into the bloodstream as needed now CBC assesses three cell types that are red blood cells number one is the erythrocytes that are made in the bone marrow and then they are discharged into the bloodstream they have hemoglobin this is also reported in there a protein that carries the oxygen a red blood cell has a lifetime of 120 days so the bone marrow must constantly manufacture that red blood cells to replace those that age and degrade or bleed out to death aside from the illnesses that cause severe bleeding many conditions can actually impact the creation of these red blood cells or their longevity well red blood cells are generally homogeneous in size and shape but for example deficits in B12 especially if you're a metformin folate iron can alter the appearance of that red blood cell anemia reduce red blood cell counts and hemoglobin is a frequent disorder affecting red blood cells anemia for example can be caused by several disorders and extra testing is sometimes required if your hemoglobin or red blood cell count is low so hemoglobin hematocrit these are all similar things that we'll talk about the next thing I want to quickly touch base is the white blood cells that are commonly known as leukocytes they're found in the blood in the lymphatic system and the tissues what they do is they help in infection resistance they prevent the inflammation they try to take care of allergy problems now some have unique functions and neutrophils lymphocytes basophils azonophils and monocytes there are some examples of these white blood cells that you will see in your cbc and you will try to figure out which I will go over that in a second and depending on body's condition these numbers can fluctuate so don't panic if your numbers are a little bit higher a little bit lower every time because for white blood cells are especially very dynamic for example a bacterial infection can cause your bone marrow to create a lot of neutrophils for example allergies may cause increase in the eosinophils a viral infection for example can make a lot of lymphocytes in leukemia for example you will see a lot of immature and mature kind of mix of white blood cells they can grow rapidly so platelets is the next thing platelets I would say we call them also thrombocytes they're microscopic blood cell fragments required for normal blood coagulation so platelets actually assist in stopping the bleeding by sticking to the wound and clumping together to form a temporary stopper they also create a lot of chemical signals that attract and clump other platelets and they eventually form a stable blood clot at the location of that lesion that Tess does trying to heal well there are several automated instruments that can actually perform cbc these instruments measure a lot of data they includes the cell count they look at the physical characteristics of certain cells and we will have a list of items in cbc right now for you so what are red blood cell tests for example the amount of red blood cell is in your blood sample is determined by doing a red blood cell count these are oxygen-carrying protein hemoglobin is measured by the total amount of hemoglobin in the blood in the red blood cell which in turn indicates the number of red blood cells as well so when it comes to red blood cell count though hematocrit counts the percentage of your entire volume of your blood as red blood cells examples of low red blood cell or hemoglobin or hematocrit are going to be anemia it could be acute or chronic bleeding causing anemia it could be red blood cell destruction for example hemolytic anemia or nutritional deficiencies such as iron deficiency v12 deficiency folate deficiency and so forth and bone marrow disorders can lead to anemia as well and some chronic inflammatory disorders such as chronic kidney disease can also cause anemia causing low hemoglobin or hematocrit etc what about the high levels well there's something called polycytemia the hydration can do that the lung diseases can do that or kidney problems occasionally kidney tumors can do that they sometimes produce excess aditropoietin smoking living in a high altitude or even some genetic causes can cause elevated hemoglobin in your blood polycytemia vera is a specific but it's a rare disorder and that is something that you can discuss with your doctor if you think you have a high risk another thing you're gonna see is mcv which is mean corpuscular volume in your cbc it's a measure of average cell volume of your red blood cells and because your blood cells contain an average quantity of hemoglobin called because mean corpuscular hemoglobin and the average concentration of hemoglobin in your red blood cell is known as the mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration if you have a low mcv that can indicate that red blood cells are smaller than normal we call that micro acetic this can be caused by iron deficiency anemia or thalassemias and a high mcv could be due to a b12 deficiency folate deficiency myelodysplasia a bone marrow disorder it could be liver disorders or thyroid problems and some other conditions which indicates that your red blood cells are larger than normal we call that macro acetic so mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration may be also low when mcv is low and decreased mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration is seen again in iron deficiency anemia and thalassemia increased mchc or mean corpuscular hemoglobin values can be seen in conditions where hemoglobin is more concentrated inside the red blood cells this could be autoimmune hemorrhagic anemia is sometimes in burn patients there's something called hereditary spherocytosis which is a rare genetic disorder that can all cause that when it comes to red blood cells there's something called red cell distribution width which i get a lot of questions about which is a measurement of the diversity in the cell size so red cell distribution width is high it may mean that like it may be a lot of small and large red blood cells presence some of them are juvenile some of them are very old etc for example in patients with iron deficiency anemia and pernicious anemia there is a significant degree of variation in the red blood cell size which we call that anizocytosis in addition to that sometimes cbc may include reticulocyte count which is a count or percentage of nearly released young red blood cells in your blood sample testing for white blood cell count is important counting the total number of the white blood cell in a blood sample is known as wbc count if the wbc which is your white blood cell count is abnormally high or low we sometimes do the fractural and as part of that cbc is a fractural if there's problems in the white blood cells so there are five types of cells are counted and these are neutrophils the lymphocytes the monocytes the azonophils and bezophils as we discussed earlier the individual count can be provided as an absolute count or they can sometimes give you as a percentage of the overall count if your white blood cell is low that's considered leukopenia and some causes are bone marrow disorders or damage to your immune system or severe infections such as sepsis lymphoma or other cancers that spread to your bone marrow can do that sometimes even dietary deficiencies or HIV or AIDS type of immune disorders can do that as well if your white blood cell is high this is considered leukocytosis and most common causes are infection either bacterial or viral could be due to inflammation in your body leukemia myeloperliferative disorders such as excessive proliferation in your bone marrow trauma burn heart attack intense exercise severe stress all can increase your white blood cells when it comes to neutrophils and if they are low we call this nitropenia the severe overwhelming infections or stuff for example sometimes the sepsis can do that or the immune disorders can do that the dietary deficiencies or reaction to medications HIV and some other bone marrow disorders can do that as well so specifically the neutrophil count can be low after chemotherapy radiotherapy and so forth especially if cancer spreads to your bone marrow if neutrophils are high we call this neutrophilia some causes are severe bacterial infections or inflammation trauma heart attack burns stress rigorous exercise if you're not used to it certain leukemias for example cml chronic myeloid leukemia or even cushion syndrome can cause that what about the lymphocyte counts well the some of the causes for low lymphocytes we call this lymphocyte apenia could be other immune disorders such as lupid or motor arthritis it could be infections such as HIV or viral hepatitis it could be influenza COVID-19 and you name it bone marrow damage can do that chemotherapy radiotherapy corticosteroids all can do that if lymphocytes are high this is called lymphocyte ptosis and some causes will be acute viral infections such as chicken pox cmv epstein bar herpes rubella etc some bacterial infections typically do that as well such as whooping cough tuberculosis toxoplasmosis and chronic inflammatory conditions such as ulcerative colitis coronal disease and so forth the informal will definitely do that as stress can occasionally especially acute stress and then the esonophils are next guys the esonophils can be high especially in asthma the allergies hay fever drug reactions do that parasitic infections can increase your esonophil counts sometimes celiac disease inflammatory bowel disease can do that some cancers trigger high esonophil count certain acute or chronic leukemias or lymphomas sometimes addisonous disease connective tissue disorders and so forth now how about platelets let's let's get into the platelets now if it is low we call this thrombocytopenia sometimes viral infections such as mono or mononucleosis measles hepatitis stuff like that can do that now sometimes the allergic reactions to even to acetaminophen or sulfa drugs can do it cirrhosis can do it autoimmune disorders such as itp can do it sepsis leukemia lymphoma chemo and radiotherapy can all cause that but if your platelets are high recall this thrombocytosis again this can happen with lung cancer gastrointestinal cancer breast cancer ovarian cancer and lymphoma rheumatoid arthritis can do that inflammatory bowel disease lupus iron deficiency anemia hemolytic anemia and so forth now let's talk about the mpv if the mean platelet volume is low that indicates that the average platelet size is low and that can mean that a condition is affecting the production of platelets by the bone marrow well if the mpv is high that indicates a high number of larger and younger platelets are in the blood well this may be due to bone marrow producing and releasing platelets rapidly into the circulation for example myeloproloperative disorders such as essential thrombocytemia one or more diseases or disorders may be present at the same time if the cbc results fall beyond the predefined reference intervals though you will still need to have a good conversation with your doctor and do not try to interpret your own results i am trying to give you a general idea about how to understand your results and sometimes your doctors will actually send this blood sample for a smear for under microscope examination for more detailed examination to understand further because cbc is overall a general test to give an idea to the healthcare provider to the physician they can utilize this information to understand the root cause of the abnormal cbc findings and most of the time more tests are necessary when your platelets are low your risk of excessive bleeding will be high and when your platelets are high your risk of clotting will be high so guys i hope this gave you some idea about how to look at your cbc and we will talk more about other blood testing for you if you have questions don't hesitate to ask we may not give personal information but i can answer some of the questions that you may have that is not necessarily pertinent directly to you well thank you very much and we'll see you in the next video hey guys i hope you're enjoying this channel so far and i hope you subscribed already if you didn't do it and if you did watch this video right there i think that will help you too